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If two companies say that their cases that cover the home button with rubber say those cases block the reader, it is logical to assume that any case with a similar rubber covering will block the reader.

So far, only Spigen says the button cover doesn't work with the 5S. What exactly they mean by that (it could just be that the dimensions of the new button are different and the cover won't fit) I don't know. And yes, I guess I'll ask them.
 
neither am I - as I already stated earlier. This isn't about the government - this is about the people who also steal your credit cards or blackmail you with said camera pictures (just went through the press here a week ago). What would you say if someone contacted you and asked for cash in exchange for the assurance that your prints won't show up on a future crime scene?

Jesus, what kinda ish are you into?

HOW would you get entangled into this kind of situation? Are you famous or something? Do you think people are looking to get YOUR fingerprints for a specific REASON?

I can tell you I've NEVER been afraid of being blackmailed for ANYTHING. But that may be because:

(1) I'm a nobody (at least nobody famous).
(2) I don't plan on being in a "compromising" situation.
(3) I, frankly, don't care. The government will get what it gets. And if a hacker is knowledgeable enough to somehow reverse engineer data that's supposedly impossible to reverse engineer, there's a LOT more I should be worried about than my fingerprints.....which as of Friday, will only be used to unlock my iPhone.

Again, I'm confused as to why THIS is such a security concern, and a myriad of other things don't seem to bother you......also, wondering WHO you are to be so worried of something like having someone STEAL your fingerprints only to PLACE them at a CRIME SCENE and then BLACKMAIL you......

Someone watches too much TV.
 
Buy the 5C instead.


I find your request :rolleyes:, but if you really want a 5S, just put an otterbox for the iPhone 5 on it or a cover that covers the button. Hell, I assume even those home button stickers would work.

tin-foil-hat.jpg
 
So far, only Spigen says the button cover doesn't work with the 5S. What exactly they mean by that (it could just be that the dimensions of the new button are different and the cover won't fit) I don't know. And yes, I guess I'll ask them.

But why did it take you this long in the thread and my needling to ask a company that has specifically stated their case doesn't work why that case doesn't work?

You even knew the name of the company before you started this thread.
 
neither am I - as I already stated earlier. This isn't about the government - this is about the people who also steal your credit cards or blackmail you with said camera pictures (just went through the press here a week ago). What would you say if someone contacted you and asked for cash in exchange for the assurance that your prints won't show up on a future crime scene?

This is one of the silliest tings I've heard in a while and honestly. I would laugh at the absurdity of their threat and hang up. Just how would they place my fingerprints at a crime scene? Even if they could extract a digital copy from the 5s, they still wouldn't be able to print it onto a candelstick in the library next to the body of Col. Mustard. If they murdered someone with my firearm and left it at the scene I'd be a little worried (since it does have my fingerprints on it).
 
HOW would you get entangled into this kind of situation? Are you famous or something? Do you think people are looking to get YOUR fingerprints for a specific REASON?

I can tell you I've NEVER been afraid of being blackmailed for ANYTHING. But that may be because:

Good for you - neither have I. Unfortunately, other people aren't so lucky:

http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/12412390

Apparently, some Russian guys find it lucrative enough to target nobodies like us with extortion schemes, asking for a couple hundred bucks at a time.
 
Good for you - neither have I. Unfortunately, other people aren't so lucky:

http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/12412390

Apparently, some Russian guys find it lucrative enough to target nobodies like us with extortion schemes, asking for a couple hundred bucks at a time.

I read that link.....

What a ridiculous pile of nonsense. How you think that situation is "normal" and could happen to anyone is absurd.

Newsflash - don't take your pants off over the internet in front of a stranger.....

I fail to see how that ^ leads us to "I can't use the iPhone's fingerprint sensor because my prints might be stolen and placed at the scene of some crime"....

But like I said - much bigger issues if you truly are afraid of the above story happening to you. Better swear off technology all together.
 
But why did it take you this long in the thread and my needling to ask a company that has specifically stated their case doesn't work why that case doesn't work?

You even knew the name of the company before you started this thread.

I knew that Spigen made a sticker but I didn't know they said it doesn't work.
Holmes093 pointed that out at the beginning of the thread - so again, please actually read what the thread's about before attacking people.
 
You're claiming the technology is safe, I'm claiming it might not be - neither of us has definite proof of that (yet). I fail to see in how far I'm unreasonable while you're not.

I didn't claim the technology is safe. Apple did. At some point, you have to trust the manufacturer.

Again, if you think that the fingerprint sensor may be active even when disabled, a reasonable question would be whether or not that's true. However, claiming that it is enabled because you don't know is unreasonable.
 
I fail to see how that ^ leads us to "I can't use the iPhone's fingerprint sensor because my prints might be stolen and placed at the scene of some crime"....

I just wanted to point out that there are psychos out there who'll use any kind of information to scam other people into transferring them some cash.

And now just go hate someone else.
 
Once your fingerprint is out in the wild, any future service that uses it as a means of authentication is already compromised before you've used it even once. That's why I think it's prudent to think twice before you frivolously use it on a toy - that's all.

It's compromised already, your fingerprints are everywhere. Mine are everywhere. It wouldn't be hard to follow someone and get prints. Any future use would require more than just a fingerprint anyway. Imagine an ATM where you only needed a fingerprint to get cash. You'd have hordes of people dusting for prints all over the place hoping to hit a jackpot.
As far as images of prints being stored I think it's safe to say that isn't how it's done. Imagine a vault that could only be opened if a book was placed in front of an optical character reader. Only one specific title will open the vault, and no one but the vault owner knows what that book is. If the OCR system had an image of all pages of the special book, it could be hacked and the image viewed to see which book was required... Too simple, but so is the solution. Instead of scans of the book, it simply contains the following:
Page 1: 45th character is t
Page 17: 6th character is F
Page 94: 204th character is p
Page 32: 15th character is .
Etc etc, maybe 100 of these entries.. whatever would be necessary to be statistically improbable to have two different books match. Now it would be impossible to recreate the text of the book. Even the OCR software doesn't know what the book is after a correct scan because it is just looking at those few points to verify. The only way an unauthorized individual could find out would be to scan every book in existence until they got a match, which really isn't relatable to fingerprints as it isn't practical to ask everyone to "touch this sensor for me to see if I can unlock the phone."

Now, to be true to your original question... I think if you mistrust Apple to the point where you believe they are flat out lying about the technology in question, it would be hard to trust some method a random forum user suggests to circumvent that technology. Perhaps foil backed electrical tape? But would that defeat a capacitance based system? Cover the stainless ring so it doesn't detect a finger? But perhaps that ring is just a ruse to fool people into thinking you can cover it and protect yourself? An option in settings? We already established a lack of trust so who says that option actually disables anything. That leads to other options such as gloves, a stylus, a knuckle (that seems like a good way).

I apologize if my book analogy doesn't fit exactly, I certainly don't have the background to know exactly how these systems work, I just do trust when they say you can't reverse the process and create a fingerprint from the data used to verify an acceptable print (which I've been hearing for over a decade on print systems I've had to use, although I suppose its possible they're all lying)

Good luck with whatever method you choose.
 
I didn't claim the technology is safe. Apple did. At some point, you have to trust the manufacturer.

Again, if you think that the fingerprint sensor may be active even when disabled, a reasonable question would be whether or not that's true. However, claiming that it is enabled because you don't know is unreasonable.

ok.
 
I just do trust when they say you can't reverse the process and create a fingerprint from the data used

I do too, actually - what I don't trust is that it's impossible to get the image directly off the scanner. But thanks for the useful post
 
I guess there is a lot of mistrust as it was not too long ago we thought our emails and phone conversations were more secure and REQUIRED a court order to read. No they have the ability to look at all of your credit card transactions. This stuff just come out in little pieces each day, I hate tho think what it REALLY going on!

l.o.l.

If people are that worried they should not use a smart phone in the first place.

Forget the fingerpirnt. They know from your phone company who you are, they can track your movements with the GPS. They can read your SMS, contacts, e-mails and internet use.
....did I mention the voice recognition program that the NSA is now using to screen all calls over cell networks (using data from backed recorded conversations from any telephone calls made to government departments from the last 5 years.)
 
neither am I - as I already stated earlier. This isn't about the government - this is about the people who also steal your credit cards or blackmail you with said camera pictures (just went through the press here a week ago). What would you say if someone contacted you and asked for cash in exchange for the assurance that your prints won't show up on a future crime scene?

yeah, I don't think so. Send that one to google translate. http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/12412390

While you might not play along, I'm pretty sure situations like that are pretty nasty.

Certainly, after you've been arrested and have gone through a world of pain.


A guy willingly posted a nude video of himself and it was later used as blackmail. How does that even remotely compare to your fingerprint fear?

I'm also curious about this "world of pain" you speak of.


Again, to summarize, you believe that:
Criminals will somehow devise a way to hack into your phone without physically touching it, find a method to, not only activate the fingerprint sensor, but also have it take a picture instead of the data it was made for, and, instead of encrypting it directly onto the chip, export it out.

Then, after receiving only a partial of 2-3 fingers, they will then print them out and use said prints to either commit crimes or blackmail you.


Is that the current story?
 
I knew that Spigen made a sticker but I didn't know they said it doesn't work.
Holmes093 pointed that out at the beginning of the thread - so again, please actually read what the thread's about before attacking people.

Yes, he pointed it out at the beginning of the thread, and you're just getting around to contacting them now.... why?

According to your post you knew their protector had a plastic cap, not a sticker, and it strikes me that a thick piece of plastic would block the reader. Especially if it covers the metal ring around the home button. But calling that company is the only way to know for sure.

Otterbox cases seem like they would block the reader, contact them as well.

To set the record straight, I understand why you are concerned and being cautious is always best when you are concerned. Its just that you have taken the laziest approach to something you claim you are seriously concerned about.
 
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Your prints must be stored somewhere on the iPhone. How else could it be able to compare your fingerprints to that of someone else?

A major concern of mine would be what would happen when you sold your phone. Like it or not, your prints must be stored on your phone, encrypted maybe, but there non the less.
 
Mods - feel free to close / delete whatever the thread. I'm tired and will be hitting the hay. I'll do you all a favor and will never start a thread here again.
 
I can't even tell what you want anymore.

None of us designed the system. None of us knows how it works. None of us can give you a definitive answer.

And even if we could...how would you know it was true?
 
Your prints must be stored somewhere on the iPhone.

Not really - it's enough to store the hash and compare it to the actual image from the scanner for authentication. It's close to impossible to reconstruct the actual print from the hash.

----------

None of us designed the system. None of us knows how it works.

Some of you surely must have been in the engineering team as every other person here seems to be a total expert.
 
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